If It's You
by rumwow
Summary: Aizawa was enlightened by his conversation with Shiraishi. (A very short one.)


" _Otsukare_ ," Aizawa turned his head to the source of the voice and found her stood beside him in the heliport with her right hand stretched out towards him, offering a can of black coffee. Shiraishi walked past him to sit on another railing next to the railing he sat on after Aizawa took the coffee from her.

"You're coming tomorrow, right?" Shiraishi asked as she stared at the setting sun. Aizawa glanced at her before he hummed an affirmation.

Fujikawa and Saejima finally decided to hold their belated wedding ceremony, and they had set the following day as their wedding date. It was going to be a modest ceremony with family and friends. Fujikawa had insisted the three of them – Aizawa, Shiraishi, and Hiyama – to attend, and he wouldn't hear any excuses. Aizawa surprised himself when he felt a tinge of happiness as he received the invitation from his fellow doctor. He even uncharacteristically took a day off that day, because he had no other way if he wanted to attend – the night shift had been taken by the staff leader. Besides, he could use the rest of the day to prepare for his departure to Toronto.

Aizawa pulled the tab of his canned coffee and took a sip, eyes looking at the same sun as Shiraishi's. "I still remember how Fujikawa-sensei used to pine for Saejima-san even though he knew that she had a boyfriend, and now they're married," Shiraishi chuckled at the memories. She then laughed as she recalled, "And you, Aizawa-sensei, didn't even know that they were going out. I know that you're not interested in that kind of thing, but, how come? We work in the same hospital."

Hearing no response from her companion, Shiraishi continued, "Soon, it'll be Hiyama-sensei's turn."

"Hiyama's getting married?" Aizawa asked in disbelief.

"No, not yet. I mean, among us, she's the only one in a relationship right now, so I think, she has the highest possibility to get married in the near future," Shiraishi corrected, "Unless, you're in relationship, too?" She asked tentatively, almost made Aizawa choked on his coffee.

"You think a woman who wants to have a relationship with me exist?" Aizawa asked rethorically. He knew he was physically attractive, added his profession and his intelligence to the equation, almost made him irresistable to any woman. But relationship was something different altogether. He also knew, there was no sane woman who could stand his personality.

He suddenly got annoyed. Talking about relationship made him realize that he actually had thought about it, when he used to not care at all. It made him realize that he subconsciously wanted it. This was all because of Fujikawa, or maybe he just got old. And Aizawa got even more annoyed because he knew the chance for him to have a relationship was almost nonexistent. Unless he tried hard for it. But it kind of hurt his pride to pursue a woman, moreover to change his personality to match the taste of a woman.

"Of, course!" Shiraishi's firm answer startled him. Aizawa turned to her and saw how serious she looked that moment. "You may be arrogant, but you match that with your intelligence and capability. You don't speak much, and when you speak it's hurtful sometime, but you're honest. Very much so. And you're caring, in your own way. You're responsible and you don't play around like some other guys. I'm sure there'll be a woman who realizes your good side, and embraces your bad side," she added in conviction.

Aizawa looked at her in amazement, because the woman Shiraishi just described sounded a lot like herself.

Or maybe not. She did that as his superior, because as a staff leader she needed to _realize his good side and embrace his bad side_. Not just his, but also the other staffs', _even Haitani's_ , Aizawa told himself.

"Who knows, maybe you'll meet her in Toronto, Aizawa-sensei," she said with a smile.

 _Not likely,_ Aizawa thought as he took another sip.

"Of course it would be great if you could meet someone here in Japan, so that you wouldn't risk having a long distance relationship in the future. Just like Fujikawa-sensei and Saejima-san. Maybe she's closer than you think, Aizawa-sensei. Maybe you just need to take a good look around," Shiraishi cheerfully told him, which made him shiver, because it felt like she was talking about herself.

"By the way, Aizawa-sensei, what kind of girl do you like?" for the third time that afternoon, Shiraishi's question weirded him out. They had never talked about this kind of topic before. The things they usually conversed about were mainly about work, or family sometime, serious stuffs, heavy stuffs. Not girls or relationship. So Aizawa opted to walk away to avoid stranger happenings.

"You do that again!" Shiraishi yelled from her spot in the railing, stopping Aizawa on his track. He looked back at her in confusion.

"Do you know how many times you've walked away from me, Aizawa-sensei?" Shiraishi snapped as she stood up, "You always walk out on me in the middle of a conversation. That's a bad habit, you know."

Aizawa was caught off guard at first and as he tried to recall he realized he did have the tendency to flee everytime her words hit home and he was wrong. Or on the contrary, because he knew he was right but no matter what he said she wouldn't listen anyway so he chose to stop talking and showed through action instead. Or like that moment, because he didn't want to answer her question.

"It's not always," Aizawa corrected, Shiraishi just rolled her eyes.

"What are you gonna do if you know, anyway? Find me a girlfriend?" Aizawa asked in annoyance.

"Forget it," Shiraishi muttered as she walked past him to the direction of the entrance of the hospital buiding behind him.

 _And then she walked out on me,_ Aizawa sighed exasperatedly.

Aizawa was in the staff room finishing up his treatment report and made some notes for Natori who would be in charge of his patients when he was on leave the following day. It was 9 minutes after 10 p.m. and Shiraishi hadn't come into the office even once. He knew she was on night duty so she probably was busy doing her round and standing by in the ICU. But it had passed dinner time and it got him worried to think that Shiraishi skipped eating. Aizawa didn't know how busy the ICU at the moment but so far he hadn't gotten any call for help, so maybe it wasn't that strenuous.

Aizawa started to think that Shiraishi might be avoiding him. She was obviously mad at him after that small argument in the heliport. Maybe he should apologize. Aizawa bit his lip and closed his eyes in exasperation. _Of course_ he had to apologize. What did he think to spout back an argument like that? That was _so stupid._

He needed to do something before things got awkward between them, or worse, strained. He could stand Shiraishi getting mad at him when he knew he was right, because in the end, she would see his point and supported him anyway. But that time, it obviously was his fault. He needed to apologize.

Aizawa saved his work before turning his laptop to sleeping mode. He took out his wallet from the drawer and made a dash to the convenience store on the ground floor of the hospital. He was thinking to bribe Shiraishi with _onigiri_ to forgive him.

Aizawa rubbed his thumb to the side of his forefinger for he couldn't decide which filling that Shiraishi liked. He decided to take one from each flavor. Then thought better to take two for each flavor, because she might be hungrier than he thought. Aizawa then bought a bottle of water. But then got confused about which one Shiraishi would like between water and _ocha_ , then decided to just buy both. He could take either one that she didn't choose.

As he walked to the door of the convenience store after paying, carrying a large plastic bag filled with food, Shiraishi stepped into the scene. Their gaze met.

Awkward.

It was Shiraishi who broke the silence, " _Otsukare_ ," she said as she nodded.

"Aa," Aizawa replied hesitantly. Shiraishi walked pass him toward the shelf that displayed all kinds of _onigiri_.

"Haven't had dinner yet?" Aizawa tested the water. Shiraishi turned to him for a moment and hummed an affirmation.

Aizawa walked up to her as Shiraishi picked some _onigiri_ , "I bought a lot. Would you like some?" he offered when he reached her side.

Shiraishi shook her head, "No, it's okay. I'll buy one myself."

"No, I- I bought them for you, too," he opened the plastic bag to show her dozens of onigiri inside it.

She looked down to the contents of the plastic bag, then looked up at him wide-eyed, "Why?"

"I noticed you haven't come to the office to take a break, so, just in case you haven't had dinner yet," Aizawa shyly explained, though, of course, didn't look shy at all.

"Thank you," Shiraishi said, a little confused, a little happy.

"Let's eat outside," Aizawa told her as he made a move to the door. But then, he stopped himself and stared at her.

"What?" Shiraishi asked in confusion.

"You haven't agreed, yet."

Shiraishi then chuckled in understanding, "Alright, let's eat outside," she said finally, feeling satisfied of his immediate change of attitude.

They walked side by side to the seating area on the ground floor.

"I'm sorry," Aizawa said without looking at her, "for earlier," he added.

"Forgiven," Shiraishi smiled at him.

Aizawa felt relieved and enlightened, because suddenly, a thought came to mind. That probably he had a chance in relationship, afterall. Maybe he could make it work. If it was with Shiraishi.

She understood him better than anyone else, he did too about her. Just like she said, she realized his good side and embraced his bad side. They admired and respected each other. They had the same vision and passion in life. They disagreed and argued sometime, but they would make up and work hand in hand at the end of the day. And as he told her before, he happened to find her interesting. Or to be exact, attractive.

Yes, he was convinced. He didn't need to look somewhere faraway, he just had to turn his head to his side. And there she was. The kind of girl that he liked. And he realized he didn't really mind to make efforts to pursue her.


End file.
